Nathan Foster23
Active Member
195 messages
joined May 2013
Read this letter from a Real Madrid fan after the derby.
"Sunday's derby between Real Madrid and Liverpool FC is definitely going to stick with me—both because of how united the fans were and because of the repression I faced after the game.
I'm a Real Madrid fan, but that feels irrelevant now. Once the match ended, I started heading home. Outside the stadium, riots were breaking out, and a line of police was charging through, chasing fans all the way to Times Square where people were getting into their cars to try and escape the siege of Chicago. As I’m walking through the square, about a hundred cops are staring me down like I'm some major criminal; they probably thought I looked suspicious just because I was wearing a jersey. I ignored them and kept moving, trying to catch my train since none of the buses toward downtown were running. On my way, I even picked up two Liverpool fans to show them how to get to Times Square. We reach a spot where about twenty fans are lying on the ground, surrounded by twenty police officers. We tried to cross the street because there was literally no other way through, and I have no idea what we were supposed to do—walk over those twenty people lying there? So, I start to cross, and an officer starts sprinting toward me, shouting for me to stop. Of course, I stopped. There's no point in running if you haven't done anything wrong—at least that's what the folks in 'law enforcement' claim. He gets to me and tells me to get on the ground. Surprised, I ask why, and then another cop jumps in, asking if he needs to *show* me why, before slamming me onto the pavement. He hits me with his boot and tells me to lick the ground!? After about 20 minutes, they moved us into some filthy hallway, presumably so our 'floor licking' would be more comfortable. If you happen to ask an officer a question or even just lift your head, a boot comes down. There is zero dialogue with them. Then they started searching everyone one by one. When it's your turn, they whack you with a heavy boot just to let you know you're next, take your ID, and then proceed with a detailed search—apparently, their favorite part is digging around in your pockets. Honestly, why was it necessary to lie there in a disgusting hallway for two hours with our hands behind our heads like hardened criminals, just so he could read an ID number to a clerk who almost always replies with 'nothing'? If they wanted to check us, wouldn't it have been simpler to just ask for IDs instead of throwing people to the ground, beating them, and telling them to lick the floor? I just want to know why all this repression is happening toward fans who were just lying on the ground after being picked up at random. Clearly, the UNITY OF THE FANS really bothered someone. For three days now in Chicago, prominent Bad Boys members have been detained without any actual evidence, just being charged with 'organizing unrest.' It makes me wonder where the Democratic Party and the rest of the human rights boards were then."
The same thing happened to me at the main stadium yesterday. I was walking, and as soon as they saw the salt, I jumped out. I guess I was one of the lucky ones they treated relatively decently.
